How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

CHAPTER ONE Of Basic Principles Living as a Fine Art Definition of Happiness—Creative Self-sculpture—-Some Sources of Unhappiness—The Case of Robert—Can We Change Human Nature ?—'The Law of Psychic Inertia—How to Know Yourself— Twelve Laws of Personality Evolution. AS a human being you have the choice of three basic attitudes toward life. You may approach life with the philosophy of the turnip, in which case your life will Consist in being born, eating, drinking, sleeping, maturing, mating, growing old, and dying. Of human turnips there are no end, and theirs is a calm contentment undisturbed by the problems of this world. They require neither books nor teaching, since vegetation is the be-all and end-all of the human turnip’s life. The same Providence that protects puppy dogs and earthworms watches over their destiny and provides their simple wants in life. They vegetate at the lowest level consistent with humanity, and as they never read books, we need not disturb their placid existences by useless instruction in the art of living. The second basic attitude is to look at life as if it were a business. A great many so-called successful men and women believe that life is a business, and they arrange their conduct and behaviour accordingly. If you believe that life is a business your first question of life, naturally, is “ What do I get out of it ? ” and your first reaction to any new experience is, “ Plow much is this worth to me ? ” In a world based on this attitude, happiness becomes a matter of successful competition, and this is the method of choice in the animal world. The stronger eats the weaker. The fittest, in point of personal power, survives at the expense of the weaker. Life becomes a matter of aggressive offence and successful defence. Every animal shifts for himself, and living alternates between savage victory and abject defeat.